NeoGAF, the forum famous for breaking the latest information in the video game industry, has been rejected from attending E3 this year.
NeoGAF’s founder, Tyler Malka, broke the news to the community yesterday:
E3 just rejected us for media badges for the first time.
‘Your company does not appear to be an active media outlet with ongoing coverage of the Interactive Entertainment Industry and as a result you do not qualify for a media badge. If you are still interested in attending E3 2014, you may qualify for a paid admission.’
Interesting conclusion.
Many members of the community were left stunned. NeoGAF has a dedicated team that not only moderates, but ensures that stories are properly verified. As a result, NeoGAF’s information is often so up-to-date that many gamers prefer it over other gaming news sites staffed with professional journalists.
“That’s fucked up,” one user wrote response to Malka’s post. “Most of the E3 news are on GAF first.”
According to E3’s press accreditation, any journalist applying for a press pass must have examples of published articles that clearly show his or her name on the byline. Although NeoGAF doesn’t publish articles, their importance to gaming press and information is rather ubiquitous. For that reason, many in the industry open their doors for NeoGAF.
It does seem that E3 uses a third party PR company, Double Forte, that handles press badges. That company may not be aware of the weight NeoGAF holds in the industry.
Director of Programming for Xbox Live and general gaming good guy, Major Nelson, did reach out to Tyler Malka. He’s offered him a badge through Microsoft.
But it seems that Malka, as well as NeoGAF, wants to continue to stay as neutral as possible. Getting extra benefits from major publishers could be seen as taking favors.
“Appreciate the offer, Larry,” Malka responded. “Feels like it would run contrary to our neutrality principles to fly in under the Microsoft banner, though.”
E3 did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Photo by Sergey Galyonkin/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)